Mark Green of Tennessee Visits Normandy for D-Day, Remembers the Cost of Freedom

 

U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee’s Seventh Congressional District was in Normandy this week to observe the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

While there, Green also mingled with some of the surviving men who participated in that historic event. He also took time to reflect upon why we must never forget that day.

Green shared some of his observations by phone from France on Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report.

Green told radio hosts Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy that the D-Day soldiers he’s met this week “are harder than Superman’s kneecap.”

“They are just tough guys. I got to talk with a bunch of them this morning. I went in and heard their stories. Fascinating. Chills up and down my spine since early this morning,” Green said.

“The guys who came home with a flag over their coffin, they are the heroes, and they are the ones that we must never every forget.”

Another takeaway from Green’s trip — the cost of freedom.

“I think the thing most important is to remember the price that freedom cost us and to always remember we have to be ever vigilant to any encroachments in freedom,” Green said on Thursday’s program.

“China and Russia and Islamic Jihadist terrorists…they want to take that freedom away, and we have to stand ever vigilant, and we need a strong military and we need to support our men and women in uniform and never forget those who paid the price for freedom,” Green said.

Earlier, Green said the men who died on D-Day paid “an enormous price to pay for a toehold on the European continent, but that’s what it cost.”

“Saving Private Ryan does as a good of a job as possible at cinematography to recreate that moment when the bullets are coming at you and your friends are dying and being blown up,” Green said.

“Standing on that beach and thinking of the distances they had to cover, I’m just blown away by it.”

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].